I just got a new laptop with Vista and I already have a home network setup with one computer running XP Pro and the other one running XP Home. They are connected to a wireless router and the XP Pro machine has a scanner/ink-jet printer, laser printer, and a 500GB HDD shared on the network. The XP Home machine has a photo ink-jet shared. I can't seem to get the XP machines and the Vista laptop to talk though. I managed to get them to ping each other so I know it's not a firewall issue. I have sharing enabled on the laptop and obviously on the other machines since they have been working fine for quite a while now. Does anyone have any tips on getting Vista onto a 'XP Network'. I've done research in forums but it hasn't done much good since there doesn't seem to be any concise answers on what you need to do. p.s. The XP machines can see the Vista machine, but it won't let them access it. The Vista machine can't see anything but the router and the cable modem, and the Internet works on the Vista machine.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.-Albert Einstein

Link to file & printer sharing in Vista:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/...

Make Everyone appear in the Security Tab:

In Computer, go to the drive or folder, right-click it > Properties > Security Tab > Edit > Add then type ‘Everyone’ (not the quotes) and below it select your preferences, e.g. Read or Full Control. Now Apply, OK etc. to finish.

If it’s still not sharing, make sure in Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center you have Password Protected Sharing ticked as ‘off’. Also, make sure Network Discovery and File Sharing are both ‘on’.

I would like to snapp-in in this post.
I have the same problem, and spent now more then a workday finding the solution, really can't find it.

I've done the above suggestions already. Thank you.

My situation is the following:
Doctors office:
2 vista business pc's (let's call them A & B)
2 XP Pro's (C & D) (C acting as a file server)
Linksys Router (all connected with UTP)

Everybody can access each other in two directions!
Only one vista (A) can't access 1 XP Pro (C ).
This XP Pro (C) can access this Vista (A)!

Again, all other connections work on all computers except for this A -> C.

Tried everything with guest accounts on the XP (C),double-double checked the users if they match, changed the Netbios setting on (A), tried everything in the network center, checked for possible software causing this, even formatted the vista pc (A).
Checked the cable by connecting A with the cable of B. On Vista B created a new user exactly as A and it does work on B!

I hope this is not too confusing the way I tell you people this.
Bottomline, everything works, except this connection from this vistapc to browse one particular XP machine. The other XP AND Vista machines are having no problems accessing this same XP machine acting as a server.
Also, all computers can access the Vista pc that is causing the problem (B,C,D -> A). This vista pc can also access the other XP and Vista machines, only not this particular one.

I'm out of ideas, someone?
Tnx!